1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electrical junction box installed in an automobile or the like, and particularly relates to an electrical junction box in which a box body and an attachment body that is separate from the box body are connected to each other via connectors by mounting the attachment body to the box body by a rotating operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 7,507,094 discloses an electrical junction box installed in an automobile. The electrical junction box of U.S. Pat. No. 7,507,094 has as an electronic control unit (ECU) provided as an attachment body that is separate from a box body of the electrical junction box, so that the attachment body can be mounted removably to the box body. The structurally separate electronic control unit has the advantage of being easily replaced or changed, and so on.
The electrical junction box disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,507,094 has a rotating portion provided at an end of the attachment body and supported by a support in a case of the box body so that the attachment body is mounted rotatably to the box body. Rotating the attachment body enables a main body connector in the box body to connect with an attachment body connector in the attachment body.
The rotating portion of the attachment body is supported by the supporting portion of the case of the box body, and thus the attachment body is positioned with respect to the case at the supporting portion. Meanwhile, the main body-side connector in the box body is on the side of the case that is opposite to the supporting portion and away from the supporting portion. For this reason, it was difficult to align the attachment body connector of the attachment body with the main body connector.
The inventors of the present invention have proposed an electrical junction box in JP 2010-200503A, in which a guide pin is provided in the vicinity of the attachment body connector of an attaching portion, and a guide groove that guides the guide pin in a connector connecting direction is provided in the vicinity of the main body connector of the case of the box body. With this configuration, the attachment body can be positioned with respect to the case near the connectors by inserting the guide pin into the guide groove, and the attachment body connector and the main body connector can be aligned with each other more accurately. However, special processing also is required for the guide pin on the attaching portion side of the electrical junction box disclosed in JP 2010-200503A, and the guide groove on the box body leads to an increase in the size of the box body.
The invention was made in view of the above-described circumstances, and it is an object thereof to provide an electrical junction box in which a main body-side connector provided in a box body and an attachment body-side connector provided in an attachment body are connected to each other by rotating the attachment body with respect to the box body, and so that the main body-side connector and the attachment body-side connector can be connected to each other more easily and accurately without requiring special processing on the attachment body side.
To achieve the object, the inventors conducted research on electrical junction boxes conforming to conventional structures disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,507,094, and the like. The inventors found that improper positioning of the main body-side connector in the box body of the conventional electrical junction box is one of major causes of difficulty when connecting the main body-side connector and the attachment body-side connector to each other. More particularly, the accuracy of the positioning of the attachment body on the case of the box body affects the accuracy of the positioning of the attachment body-side connector with respect to the main body-side connector. The invention was made based on these new findings.